2008 Woodie Awards
Follow-up stories on the year's biggest events
Issue date: 6/4/08 Section: News
Updates to emergency response plan
Amber Riippa
After the bomb threat issued the first day of fall classes and a possible gunman sighting the first day of winter classes, Wright State's Communications Crisis Committee wrote proposals to solve emergency notification problems such as the delay in their Short Message Service (SMS), also known as text-messaging.
Michael Coons, administrator of Wright State's Emergency Management department said, "Wright State is currently updating the existing message component to the Simplex building notification system that we expect will be in place before students return to school in the fall."
Coons said a recent development being worked on by the offices of Communications & Marketing and Computer and Telecommunication Systems is the "Campus Message Entry Service" (CMES).
This development is a web-based system that will send emergency messages to the entire University community through the official "listserv" e-mail system, text messages and post necessary information on wright.edu.
A team at Wright State is working on adding a prompt for students to sign up or update their information when they sign into WINGS.
Phi Kappa Tau, a Greek fraternity, spoke to the Committee to see if they could help them in any way. They sought to inform students about what to do in an emergency and educated them about Wright State's current emergency notification system.
"We got some good news," said Martin Borchers, chairman of the Civics Committee of the fraternity. "We are having a sit-down with Michael Coons soon. We are looking into forming a student board, where we will be inviting students to be involved with the process. The details are still up in the air."
Coons added, "Since no single communication method is capable of reaching everyone, Wright State uses a variety of notification systems. Text messaging is only one of those methods. On any given day, delays in receiving text messages can occur that are beyond the control of the university…the more systems we have in place, the better our emergency communication system will be."
Possible gunman
Whitney Wetsig
No one was caught in relation to the possible gunman incident that occurred back in January, according to Wright State campus police.
The incident occurred on Jan. 7 at 6:12 a.m. when a man who appeared to be carrying a gun was spotted by a student patrol officer in the stairwell of Millett Hall. The man was accompanied by another man, with both of them wearing dark trench coats, said Iris Harvey, Associate Vice President of Marketing & Communications.
At around noon that day, the university notified faculty, staff and students by email and asked anyone with information to come forward.
"There was no response," said Harvey. "Since then, there has been no additional information that would yield a viable lead, and the case has been closed. The case could be reopened should campus police receive viable information," she said.
There are currently 26 student patrol officers at WSU who patrol academic areas, lock and unlock buildings, run the residence community checkpoints and drive the safety escort van from lot 20 to the residence communities, said Wendy Chetcuti, Police Records Manager. The type of incident that occurred back in January is rare, she said. "However, our student patrol is trained to looking for suspicious behavior."
"In case of an emergency, student patrol radio our communications center to have a police officer dispatched to the location," said Chetcuti. After the incident, campus police reviewed its policies and procedures, she said. "All procedures were followed by the student patrol officer involved."
"I was worried back when I heard about the incident," said freshman Laura Williams, a biological sciences major. "But, I think the police did everything they could in looking for the suspects."
"I think the police should have been able to catch the gunman," said sophomore Travis Egger, a mechanical engineering major. "I mean, they have those expensive segways."
Amber Riippa
After the bomb threat issued the first day of fall classes and a possible gunman sighting the first day of winter classes, Wright State's Communications Crisis Committee wrote proposals to solve emergency notification problems such as the delay in their Short Message Service (SMS), also known as text-messaging.
Michael Coons, administrator of Wright State's Emergency Management department said, "Wright State is currently updating the existing message component to the Simplex building notification system that we expect will be in place before students return to school in the fall."
Coons said a recent development being worked on by the offices of Communications & Marketing and Computer and Telecommunication Systems is the "Campus Message Entry Service" (CMES).
This development is a web-based system that will send emergency messages to the entire University community through the official "listserv" e-mail system, text messages and post necessary information on wright.edu.
A team at Wright State is working on adding a prompt for students to sign up or update their information when they sign into WINGS.
Phi Kappa Tau, a Greek fraternity, spoke to the Committee to see if they could help them in any way. They sought to inform students about what to do in an emergency and educated them about Wright State's current emergency notification system.
"We got some good news," said Martin Borchers, chairman of the Civics Committee of the fraternity. "We are having a sit-down with Michael Coons soon. We are looking into forming a student board, where we will be inviting students to be involved with the process. The details are still up in the air."
Coons added, "Since no single communication method is capable of reaching everyone, Wright State uses a variety of notification systems. Text messaging is only one of those methods. On any given day, delays in receiving text messages can occur that are beyond the control of the university…the more systems we have in place, the better our emergency communication system will be."
Possible gunman
Whitney Wetsig
No one was caught in relation to the possible gunman incident that occurred back in January, according to Wright State campus police.
The incident occurred on Jan. 7 at 6:12 a.m. when a man who appeared to be carrying a gun was spotted by a student patrol officer in the stairwell of Millett Hall. The man was accompanied by another man, with both of them wearing dark trench coats, said Iris Harvey, Associate Vice President of Marketing & Communications.
At around noon that day, the university notified faculty, staff and students by email and asked anyone with information to come forward.
"There was no response," said Harvey. "Since then, there has been no additional information that would yield a viable lead, and the case has been closed. The case could be reopened should campus police receive viable information," she said.
There are currently 26 student patrol officers at WSU who patrol academic areas, lock and unlock buildings, run the residence community checkpoints and drive the safety escort van from lot 20 to the residence communities, said Wendy Chetcuti, Police Records Manager. The type of incident that occurred back in January is rare, she said. "However, our student patrol is trained to looking for suspicious behavior."
"In case of an emergency, student patrol radio our communications center to have a police officer dispatched to the location," said Chetcuti. After the incident, campus police reviewed its policies and procedures, she said. "All procedures were followed by the student patrol officer involved."
"I was worried back when I heard about the incident," said freshman Laura Williams, a biological sciences major. "But, I think the police did everything they could in looking for the suspects."
"I think the police should have been able to catch the gunman," said sophomore Travis Egger, a mechanical engineering major. "I mean, they have those expensive segways."
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